1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, a control method for the information processing apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information processing apparatuses such as a personal computer (PC), a printer, and a multifunction peripheral include a network controller, and the network controller controls communication with external apparatuses on a network. At this time, as information for identifying a transmission source, an information processing apparatus transmits a media access control (MAC) address of its own network controller by attaching the MAC address to an Ethernet frame of a network packet.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a structure of the MAC address. The first 3 octets of the MAC address is managed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (hereinafter, referred to as “IEEE”), and corresponds to a vendor identification (ID) provided to each vendor. The last 3 octets of the MAC address is managed by each vendor so that the same MAC address does not exist in the vendor.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a structure of the Ethernet frame. From the head of data, the structure of the Ethernet frame is divided into regions of 8 octets, 6 octets, 6 octets, 2 octets, 46 octets to 1500 octets, and 4 octets. From the head of the data, each of the regions respectively serves as a destination address, a source address, a type, data, and a frame check sequence (FCS). The MAC address of the network controller is used as the source address.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-151670 discloses a configuration in which the first 3 octets of the MAC address whose packet is allowed to be transmitted is registered on a hub in advance. Upon receipt of a packet, the hub checks a MAC address of a source address of the received packet to determine whether the packet is allowed to be transmitted.
Further, it is known that, based on the MAC address of the network controller, the hub also checks whether the network controller is normal hardware. The configuration thereof will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 8A.
FIG. 8A is a diagram illustrating an information processing apparatus 800. A network controller 801 includes a non-volatile memory 802, and the MAC address of the network controller 801 is stored in the non-volatile memory 802. Further, a hard disk drive (HDD) 803 stores a vendor ID table 804 that includes vendor IDs issued to a vendor of the information processing apparatus 800.
For example, in a case where the vendor runs out of the MAC address corresponding to the vendor ID issued by the IEEE or at the time of manufacturing a new product, the IEEE issues a new vendor ID to the vendor. In FIG. 8A, three types of vendor IDs are stored in the vendor ID table 804. This indicates that the three types of vendor IDs are issued by the IEEE to the vendor of the information processing apparatus 800.
When the network controller 801 is initialized, the information processing apparatus 800 determines whether the first 3 octets of the MAC address of the network controller 801 matches any one of the vendor IDs stored in the vendor ID table 804. In a case where the first 3 octets of the MAC address of the network controller 801 matches any one of the vendor IDs, the information processing apparatus 800 determines that the network controller 801 is the normal hardware and enables network access. On the other hand, in a case where the first 3 octets of the MAC address of the network controller 801 does not match any one of the vendor IDs, the information processing apparatus 800 determines that the network controller 801 is not the normal hardware and ends processing as an error.
As described above, in a case where the first 3 octets of the MAC address of the network controller 801 does not match any one of the vendor IDs stored in the information processing apparatus 800, the information processing apparatus 800 can determine that the network controller 801 is not the normal hardware. However, if the processing thereof is uniformly ended as the error when the first 3 octets of the MAC address of the network controller 801 does not match the vendor ID stored in the information processing apparatus 800, this may cause a problem described below.
There may be a case where the network controller 801 of the information processing apparatus 800 is replaced with a new network controller. In addition, there may be a case where a new vendor ID is issued by the IEEE. An information processing apparatus 810 in FIG. 8B illustrates a state where the network controller 801 of the information processing apparatus 800 of FIG. 8A has been newly replaced with a network controller 811. A MAC address of the network controller 811 is stored in a non-volatile memory 812 of the network controller 811 that is newly connected to the information processing apparatus 810. The first 3 octets of the MAC address, “88-87-17”, is a normal vendor ID that is newly provided by the IEEE, and thus the network controller 811 is originally the normal hardware. However, in the example illustrated in FIG. 8B, because a vendor ID table 814 of a HDD 813 is not updated, the information processing apparatus 810 mistakenly determines that the network controller 811 is not the normal hardware in spite of the fact that the network controller 811 is the normal hardware. To solve the above problem, there is provided a method in which a user updates the vendor ID table 814. However, in a case where the vendor ID table 814 is to be updated by the user, time and effort of the user will be increased if the information processing apparatus as an update target is increased in number.